Google Maps lets you record your parking location, time left at the meter

Google Maps has just added a handy feature that will help users remember where they parked. This appears as a new menu option when you tap the blue dot, and will place a “P” icon on the map so you can find your way back to your spot. While remembering your parking location is something Apple Maps has done since the launch of iOS 10, Google’s implementation is a bit more robust.

With iOS 10, Apple Maps will mark the location of your car with a pin when you disconnect your iPhone from Bluetooth or CarPlay. You also can edit the location of the vehicle in the map and add a note or a photo through Apple’s Parked Location feature.

In the case that your phone is not connected via CarPlay or Bluetooth, you could use Apple’s Mark Location feature instead.

Google, meanwhile, had already introduced its own proactive parking saving feature via Google Now, but it had worked by tapping into your phone’s sensors and making a determination that you had most likely parked at a given spot.

Sometimes, you might see this information appear when it was unwarranted, however — like if you got off a bus or exited a taxi, Google says.

The new feature in Google Maps requires a manual entry, but this is actually a bit of an advantage over the guessing done by Google Now, because it allows you to input more information about your spot.

Like Apple Maps, you can add notes about where you parked — something that’s helpful for jotting down cross streets or which floor of a garage you’re on, for example. But Google Maps also supports adding multiple photos of your parking location — a common way people often note the parking space number in the garage, and then, via a separate shot, the floor, row, aisle and/or color code for the garage level itself.

In addition, Google’s parking location saver will let you enter in how much time you have left at the spot. This is handy if you’re in a temporary parking area (e.g. “two-hour parking”), or at a metered space. The time left is displayed on the map, and when it’s due to expire, Google Maps will alert you via push notification.

The addition to Maps was spotted earlier by Android Police. It’s especially helpful in urban areas, or when you know you’re leaving your car parked for a long time and might forget — like at the airport.

Google didn’t make a formal announcement about the parking saver, perhaps because the parking spot saver has not yet made its way to iOS. But the company did confirm with us it is indeed new.

The feature is currently available on Google Maps on Android (v. 9.49).